Monroe Community College has long sought to move its downtown campus out of the Sibley Building.

MCC’s administrators have been claiming for years that their quarters in the Sibley Building are NOT suitable for their purposes. Buildings on the site of the dying Kodak Empire on State Street, they said, would be “ideal.”

Tonight, the Monroe County Legislature voted to approve spending $3 million towards that purpose. The total cost to renovate and refit those Kodak buildings is supposed to be $72 million, although it is more likely that the total cost will exceed $75 million.

Of course, the vote to move MCC from the Sibley Building was divided ( as usual ) along partisan lines, 19 – 9.

The Democrats, led by minority leader Carrie Andrews, opposed such a move.

“Why the rush?”

Except that MCC has been looking to move from the Sibley Building for a very long time.

Worse, for the Democrats, is that they recently supported a bond issue relating to MCC. They claim they voted for it because the location wasn’t mentioned.

But surely, since the Republican majority made no bones about favoring the move to State Street, the Democrats saw through that sleight of hand. They certainly couldn’t have been that naïve!

The ladies protested too much tonight.

After all, what else could they have done?

Rochester’s Democratic mayor, Tom Richards, wanted MCC to stay put in the Sibley Building as part of Citygov’s goal to reinvigorate downtown. MCC’s presence downtown for over 20 years has had no effect in that direction.

The Winn Company, which purchased the Sibley Building in a shrewd business deal with Citygov, wanted MCC to stay simply because the downtown campus is its only major tenant. The Winn company’s last ditch attempt to keep MCC as their tenant by claiming remaining in the Sibley Building would somehow “save” MCC $18 million was largely unconvincing.

In short, this decision to move MCC to State Street was a serious blow to Richards’ prestige as he seeks to be re-elected after his poor but victorious showing in the “special election” of 2011. It revealed his inability to influence or persuade the Republican majority in the County Legislature. Just like Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks was unable to persuade the Democratically monopolized Citygov to approve her “Renaissance Square” project four years ago. That, too, would have built a new campus for MCC, although it would have been just across the street from the Sibley Building!

Ahhh, Karma!

Nor could the Republican majority in the County Legislature be moved by any embarrassments this might cause the mayor in regards to the Winn Company. But it might be seen as “icing on the cake,” since they were supportive of moving MCC to the State Street location long before anyone in Rochester ever heard of the Winn company.

As for the Winn Company, they had better be more concerned with attracting some major retailers into the Sibley Building, since 60% of it will be vacant when MCC leaves in four years’ time, at the expiration of their lease.

Unfortunately, for the Republicans, buying property on State Street and refitting it for MCC comes under the category of “be careful what you wish for; you might actually get it.” Because nobody knows the real cost this undertaking will involve, and all of it will be borne by the taxpayers of Monroe County but mostly by the taxpayers of Rochester, owing to the “chargebacks” based on use.

Anne Kress, MCC’s president, stated tonight that this decision is more “fiscally responsible” than remaining at the Sibley Building.

How so? And where will the “real savings” be?

There won’t be any savings at all.

The “new” buildings on State Street will have twice as much square footage as MCC currently leases in the Sibley Building, so roughly half of the new campus will remain empty. That might change in time. Maintaining the new campus will be at the taxpayers’ expense, since Monroe County will own the State Street campus “in trust” for MCC.

Nor will “operation costs” diminish because the county owns the building.

It is not going to be cheaper than renting space in the Sibley Building…and there will still be support pillars in the “new” building that can’t be eliminated. Just like the ones MCC officials complained about in the Sibley Building.

Of course, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans ever bothered to answer questions about a satellite campus downtown, anyway.

Like, how many full-time equivalent students ( FTEs ) make use of the downtown campus?

What courses are being offered downtown that aren’t being offered at the main campus?

Why aren’t those courses offered at the main campus?

If most of the students who use the downtown campus don’t have access to vehicles to take them to the main campus, why is having a huge parking lot for the State Street site such a plus?

How much is the administrative cost for a satellite campus?

I’ve asked these questions before. Nobody had any real answers, apart from “The downtown campus has taken on a life of its own in the last twenty years.”

So, where does that leave us?

Well, MCC is getting what it wants, to move out of the Sibley Building to the State Street site.

The Republicans in the County Legislature got the chance to stick it to the Democratic mayor of Rochester, damn the cost to the taxpayers.

The Democrats in the County Legislature are crying “foul,” although they willingly cooperated with the necessary legislation that led up to tonight’s vote.

The taxpayers of Monroe County ( especially those in the City of Rochester ) will be noticing higher chargebacks in their county tax bill for MCC.

And nobody has really bothered to state why, in the long run, either location would be better for the students attending the downtown campus.

Of course, if having a downtown campus is so convenient, wouldn’t it make sense to buy all of Kodak’s State Street property and move the whole of MCC there? After all, it’s only the taxpayers’ money!

Rochester’s City Council will soon be voting on a bill to ban hydrofracking within city limits.

For once, I would be pleased if they follow their usual procedure of voting 9 – 0 and banning it!

The possibility of fracking in Rochester is not as silly as it might seem. The decline and fall of the Kodak Empire will leave large parcels of vacant land within city limits. Especially in the northwest part of Rochester, mostly in Maplewood. I sincerely doubt that most people would be happy with a hydrofracking installation operating in their backyards.

Hydrofracking itself is the result of a wasteful society addicted to using fossil fuels to meet its energy needs. Fossil fuels themselves are finite and not very clean. Money would be better spent developing clean and renewable sources of energy.

For people who are still unfamilar with hydrofracking, I suggest checking it out on Wikipedia, which has a nice description of it, including the environmental concerns fracking raises.

If the anti-frackers haven’t made their arguments quite convincing against the evils of hydrofracking, neither have the pro-frackers for it, especially in the areas of environmental impact, cleanliness or safety. The recent explosion of a hydrofracking installation in Pennsylvania is a good example of what could happen here in Rochester.

Everytime mankind has meddled with the forces of nature, we’ve made a mess of it by destroying the balance of nature. As if “isolated incidents” don’t have an impact on areas far removed from the scene of the disaster. Look at the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico!

Industrial installations have already polluted our air, streams, lakes and rivers. The costs that we regularly incur for the cleanup of past mistakes in those areas are colossal. Will quick attempts to gain access to more fossil fuels justify the long-term costs to our ecosystem, health and quality of life?

It would be better to err on the side of caution, and vote to ban hydrofracking, not just in Rochester but in all of New York State.

In fact, with the state budget having been passed in time ( a rare occurrence ) and with equal marriage having been effected here ( at long last ), hydrofracking will become a political hot potato in Albany.

As an aside, the development of enhanced yacht slips in Charlotte has raised a similar environmental concern among its residents. But the city is going ahead with that project anyway.

Contributors

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Rich Gardner has been writing about the history, culture and waterways of Upstate New York for years. His articles have appeared in U.S. and Canadian publications, and one book, Learning to Walk. He is an alumnus of Brighton High School and SUNY Geneseo. He operates Upstate Resume & Writing Service in Brighton and recently moved to Corn Hill, where he is already involved in community projects. "I enjoy the 'Aha!' moments of learning new things, conceptual and literal. City living is a great teacher."

Ken Warner grew up in Brockport and first experienced Rochester as a messenger boy for a law firm in Midtown Tower. He recently moved downtown into a loft on the 13th floor of the Temple Building with a view of the Liberty Poll and works in the Powers Building overlooking Rochester’s four corners as Executive Director for UNICON, an organization devoted to bringing economic development to the community. He hopes to use his Rochester Blog to share his observations from these unique views of downtown.